Extract from CEO Åke Svensson's address to Saab's Annual General Meeting in Stockholm, March 30, 2004

In his address to Saab's Annual General Meeting in Stockholm today,President and CEO Åke Svensson described last year as a show of strengthby the company. Profitability improved and the order backlog at year-endwas record-high. He also stressed the role of the defence industry increating good protection against the threats to Sweden's security, whileat the same time serving as a growth engine for the economy.

2003 - a show of strength

Åke Svensson opened his address at today's Annual General Meeting bylisting a number of orders that confirm Saab's leading position in key areas.

Important orders

He mentioned Gripen, which achieved further success in Hungary and wasrecommended in the Czech Republic, the Meteor air-to-air missileprogram, the wing sections of the Airbus 380, and an order won togetherwith IBM, Boeing and Ericsson to begin creating Sweden's new network-based defence.

Level of incoming orders

At year-end, Saab had a record-high order backlog of SEK 46 billion.This surpasses the previous all-time high from 2002 by SEK 3 billion.Order bookings in 2003 totaled SEK 19.6 billion, in line with theprevious year.

Exports

Exports continue to increase in importance. Last year, 60 percent oforder bookings came from outside Sweden, and exports' share of the orderbacklog reached 65 percent at year-end.

"The historically high share of exports in the order backlog is largelya conscious effort on our part to grow in the international market,"said Åke Svensson.Structural transactions

Åke Svensson described acquisitions and divestments as an importantelement in Saab's goal to focus on its core business, which also entailsestablishing new home markets other than Sweden.

As an example, he mentioned that Saab acquired 21 percent of the SouthAfrican company Grintek, and together with SPNE of France and Patria ofFinland created a new European propellant and explosives company,Eurenco.

Financial results

The financial results for 2003 were also a show of strength. Sales roseto slightly over SEK 17.2 billion, corresponding to growth of 4.3percent, and operating income rose to SEK 1.3 billion.

"The significant improvement in the margin, excluding structural costs,shows that the measures we have taken are producing results," said ÅkeSvensson.

Earnings per share amounted to SEK 7. The Board of Directors hasproposed a dividend of SEK 3.50, unchanged from the previous year.

Global changes and new threats

With the events of March 11 of this year in Madrid and September 11,2001 in New York fresh in our memories, Åke Svensson noted that thethreat assessment from the Cold War has been replaced by new threats.

Network-based civil defence

He described initiatives to create a "network-based civil defence,"where civil and military units are linked together to protect societyagainst the threats to its security in a much more efficient way than isnow possible.

Defence decision 2004

Against this background, Åke Svensson stressed the importance of DefenceDecision 2004. It stakes out the direction and assumptions by whichSwedish defence will be organized and how it will be equipped for manyyears to come, and therefore also has a major impact on the defenceindustry.

Åke Svensson described the benefit to Sweden of a well-oiled defenceindustry and how important it is that the industry remains competitiveenough to participate in international research, technologicaldevelopment and product development projects.

He hopes to see further investments from the Swedish defence in areaswhere the defence industry is strong.

"It would benefit Sweden, since the defence industry can then continueto provide the country with access to advanced technology, help toensure that high-tech competence remains within the country, spreadtechnology to commercial industry and generate considerable exportsales," said Åke Svensson. "Further investments would basically give thedefence industry the opportunity to continue to serve as a growthengine, at the same time that it helps to defend society.

"Hopefully we will see a defence decision this year that gives Sweden aneffective, sophisticated defence against today's threats, contributes togood growth opportunities, and at the same time offers Saab stable, long-term operating conditions," he continued.

Outlook for 2004

Åke Svensson reaffirmed the forecast for 2004 that he gave in the 2003report.

"This year we expect to maintain organic growth of around 5 percent," hesaid. "And we feel that our objective of an operating margin of 10percent is within reach, provided that no further structural adjustmentsare needed due to the status of development orders."

Lastly, Åke Svensson reviewed his priorities for 2004.

"The emphasis in our work will be on airborne systems and missiles,command and control systems and advanced electronics, and service andmaintenance. We will continue in our efforts to expand in theinternational market, and we will continue to focus on acquisitions tostrengthen our presence in key markets and enter new ones," heconcluded.

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The senior graduates have handed over the torch to us, the juniors, and we are slowly acclimating to our new roles and have finally started our great journey within Saab. While writing this, all of us are spread out across Sweden from north to south and are currently learning and developing our skills at our first or second rotation. Though we only have been part of Saab for roughly three months, a completely new world of knowledge has opened up in front of us. However, before we ramble on any further we would like to take this moment to first and foremost thank the graduates of 2017/2018 for being so helpful, friendly and answering all our questions.

And now, you will find an introduction of us, the graduates of 2018/2019. We are looking forward to sharing this journey with all of you!